Green Man Projects

In my final post of last year, I made reference to the “lost” Forest of Arden, and, this being the International Year of Forests, I want to turn today to the great historical woodlands of Worcestershire.

“The Royal Forests of England” (1905) by J Charles Fox says of the county:

In earlier days there was probably no part of England more generally covered with woodland than the district afterwards known as Worcestershire. In the Norman time there were five forest districts within the shire: Wyre, Feckenham, Ombersley, Horewell and Malvern…

…Ombersley forest began at the north gate of Worcester and extended along the banks of the Severn; it had originally been part of the great forest of Wyre.

Horewell forest began at the south gate, and extended along the eastern road to Spetchley and across the Avon. Both Horewell and Ombersley ceased to be forest districts under the Forest Charter of Henry III….

Feckenham forest, on the east of the county, was of considerable extent…In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it was not infrequently termed the forest of Worcester…

The good news is that the forest of Worcester is being re-created by the newly established Muckwell Abbey – please see my other blog @ http://the-green-man-project.blogspot.com  Muckwell Abbey is not far from the Whittington Rough (see below).

The other good news is that since I last posted on “lost forests”, the Coalition Government has decided not to procede with the sale of woodlands in public ownership, and is currently conducting an inquiry into their management.

I recently came upon the “Polygon” edition of this 1927 Scottish novel, whose author’s Prologue – from which the following extract is taken – seemed to encapsulate my notion of a “Spirit of the Land” :

“Then one evening from the Hill of Deer I saw with other eyes. There was a curious leaden sky, with a blue streak about sunset, so that the shadows lay oddly. My first thought, as I looked at the familiar scene, was that, had I been a general in a campaign, I should have taken special note of Woodilee, for it was a point of vantage. It lay right in the pass between the Scottish midlands and the South – the pass of road and water – yes, and – shall I say ? – of spirit, for it was in the throat of the hills, on the march between the sown and the desert. I was looking east, and to my left and behind me the open downs, farmed to their last decimal of capacity, were the ancient land of Manann, the capital province of Pictdom….

….My mouth shaped the word ‘Melanudrigill’, and I knew that I saw Woodilee as no man had seen it for three centuries, when, as its name tells, it still lay in the shadow of a remnant of the Wood of Caledon, that most ancient forest where once Merlin harped and Arthur mustered his men…”

Incidentally, parts of the the Caledonian Forest are now being restored. Please see www.treesforlife.org.uk